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"I was born lost, and take no
pleasure in being found"
"The Sure Sign of Life is Death. Why Else Would humanity Thrive So Hard To Leave Its Mark on This World" - Unknown
'True religion is real living; living with
all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness'
We Make a
Living by What we Got, but we Make a Life by What we Give
"I have never
been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks"
Treat Earth
Well! It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to
you by your Children
"Your job won't take care
of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch"
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Cindy's November 2009 Blog
Feel Free to browse past blogs for plenty of travel ideas and many of the places we've been in our first 12 months on the road - Past Blog's Solar Tips, Fact's and Trick's we've learned while on the road Well-behaved women seldom make history
____________________________________________________________________ Wednesday November 4th So much for the diet! The last three days we have had the chance to try some of the best Italian food that we've ever had. Mike was kind enough to take us all out to DiLionie's, a restaurant that his family has been frequenting for years.
This of course contained a lunch filled with carbs, fat and tasty micro brewed beer. Not just any old beer, a few pitchers of dark, heavy, fresh brewed beer that we all devoured pretty quickly. Eating like this can't last long or Pat and I will end up like sausages again, real quick. We are leaving this morning for our two week trip up the coast of California with www.VWSurfari.com. We have been planning this trip or a few months now and I have been getting so excited. We were hoping to have a babysitter for our two kids but we could only pawn off Lucy on Mike and Julia due to Luca's bad behavior.
He seems to want to be the man of the house and marked his territory in their living room due to them having a male dog, how embarrassing. It will be nice to only have to share that small space with one dog instead of two and I'm very grateful that they offered to take Lucy. They have a really big fenced in yard that has tons of foliage and flowers in it. Lucy just patrols the area, squirming through the tightest of areas looking for whatever she can find to eat or chase which is her Beagle nature. Each time we have went over to their house, she ends up worn out and happy at the end of our visit.
Mike made room for our camper in his fenced in yard where his warehouse is so we won't have to worry about leaving it anywhere unprotected. We will be leaving Big Bubba at the yard where we pick up our bus which is about 3-4 hours north of San Diego, near Los Angeles. Hopefully we will be so busy for the next few weeks that you guys will hardly even hear from us until the trip is over, but if I know Patrick, you should get some updates at least every other day. I'll get back to packing and bringing way more than we need, I'm sure, but we can always drop some stuff off at goodwill if we are too overloaded. Maybe we can find some groovy hippie resale shops and I can restock my closet with more disposable clothing, this time more trendy and not from Wal-Mart. Life is good, I like Pat today as well as being very much in love with him. He hasn't woken up yet so this might change throughout the day! This trip is going to be like a second honeymoon for us, we have wanted to do this for years. Till next time, hopefully with tons of photos, because we will be doing alot of sight seeing for the next two weeks. Wednesday afternoon November 4th Pat has woken up now and our life of romance and second honeymoon has now become chaos and harsh words. I have been told over and over again that I am packing way too much crap by bringing hair spray, but carrying 3 flashlights, 2 headlamps and 80 lbs of camera gear is completely understandable. My husband, thank God, and I mean that in the most serious way, that he and I found each other, because I don't think anyone else would put up with the two of us.
I think the last thing I said to Pat was "Did you brush your teeth yet?" I think we all know where this one is going. Pat said "No, not yet." and I replied with an "Ok, just don't forget to put it in the travel bag when your done." We get packed into the vehicle with Pat grumping the entire time about how much stuff we have and I ask him "Did you get the address for VW Surfari that I wrote down?" He let me know that he has already programmed it into the GPS and we were set to start our vacation. Once we were in the vehicle, life seemed to settle down a bunch. Luca seems to be in some sort of trance and I think it's due to all of the playing he did at Mike and Julia's house. The trip to the pick up place for our new home was much closer than what we had thought it would be. We had arrived at their offices in about 2 hours and I was so excited! When we got to the address and they weren't at that location I just stared at Pat. "Did you get the address that I wrote down on that piece of paper the other night when I was talking with Bill on the Phone?" Pat said in a very quiet voice that he had gotten the address off line and didn't think we needed the one I wrote down. No biggie, I just called Bill and he would--no answer. Great, he left a cell number so I called that and waited for him--no answer. At this point I took the dog for a walk and tried to get over how mad I was at Pat and wanted him to get over how mad he was at me. I look at us and only wish we could have a sitcom about us living as we do on a daily basis. As I walked the dog I got a big laugh over how silly we are and know that once we get things straight we will get right back on track and be best friends like always. By the time I had gotten back in the truck we were civil again and the phone rang just after I got settled. Bill was just around the corner in our Van and met us on the street to lead us to his yard. After our meet and greet, Pat and I exchanged vehicles since Bill and Diane are nice enough to keep ours in their locked up yard until we are ready to come back.
It was looking a bit tight for all of our junk but we will just have to deal with it. Luca is still not right and I was starting to think he might have some kind of sickness, but then it hit me, he misses his woman. They haven't spent one night away from each other in years. This has to be worse than when Pat and I leave each other, we don't snuggle and play like these two do. As we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway, life started looking better and better. I always love the beginning of a new journey and I was also enjoying my new seat. This little VW Bus ROCKS! People drive by and give us the thumbs up or the peace sign, tons of people talking with us whenever we stop, giving us new places to visit or just coming over to check out the rig. We should have done this years ago. We can pull over in the drop of a dime and see things better in this rig than we can in ours. Sure, it's not filled with power, but it is alot like us, slow and steady, like a snail. By the time that we got to our first destination spot, the sun had set and it was pretty dark. We did a lap around the Santa Monica pier with our depressed dog and went looking for a place to spend the night. I should rephrase that and say a 'free place', since our budget is small. We found a nice park with no bums bothering us, and were in our cozy nest before 9pm, sleeping like three little bears. First flaw in the new system and the best lesson learned, we have no bathroom, MAKE SURE we go before going to sleep. I never even thought of it until 4am when there was nothing stopping the urge at that point. Pat frantically drove around the city and we ended up with 3 cups of coffee and a flaming bladder before we found a 24 hour McDonalds that had restrooms. I guess I will start my next days blog now since it is Thursday November 5th Wow! I got an early start this morning sitting in the bus by myself, waiting for Pat to wake up. Finally, when the sun came up, I shook him until he stirred with a grumpy bear like groan and he agreed to wake up. Day light was burning and we needed plenty of time to catch the early bird specials on Venice Beach.
I carried the dog and Pat carried the camera, that way we would have a camera left if anything happened to us this early in the morning when the only people out are hungry, homeless folks who might want a camera. We watched the skaters for a while as Pat photographed them, Luca and I walked down on the beach, disregarding the posted no dog signs just as the homeless people did. I did keep my shoes on during our walk, not knowing what might be lying around in this area. I walked back over near Pat just in time to see a man with his infant son doing a drug deal with some other street person. I requested that we walk away and we headed on up the boardwalk to view more of the lifestyle that so intrigues us. Don't get worried friends and family, I have no hopes of becoming anymore homeless than we are right now, so don't even think about that. We got back on the road again because the haze didn't look like it was going to burn off anytime soon, and without a nice sunny day, the strip wasn't as lively as we were hoping it would be. Our next stop was on Malibu Beach which I guess is where the surfing craze actually started so many years ago. We did a tour of the Adamson House which is just an amazing spectacle of what wealth was and is no more. The Adamson generation had tried to supplement their income with oil, when Mrs. Adamson when drilling they only found clay. She then started a clay tile factory however, due to the depression followed by a factory fire, the place was only open for 5 years.
This house and 13,000 acre ranch was passed down a few generations until it was bought by the state of California. I'm going to have to do some research on this place when I get home because I can't imagine what the cost would have been for what the state paid for this beach front property. From the information offered to us, it looked like the family which last owned it was having some monetary trouble but I'm not sure. It said when the home was built on Malibu Beach, no other homes could be seen from it's property line. Each time that we get back to the bus, it seems as though Luca has gone into a bigger slump. He doesn't even eat unless I put the food right at his face. Usually, he and Lucy race to see who finishes first, then they both inspect the others bowls to see if any morsel is left. We sat on the side walk watching the waves come in and a curious, hand fed duck walked right up to the bird hating Luca and practically sat on him. Luca didn't even care, he looked so lost and sad that I put him back in the bus and we took off for our next destination.
At this point in our travels every time either Pat or I have to move about the bus we actually push each other or just blatantly say "Move". I know we should be more nice with each other, but sometimes it's fun for the both of us to get on the others nerves. That must be why we enjoy each other for this long, we are both a bit loony! Just past Malibu we saw a great view from atop a cliff side and decided to turn around in order to soak it in. We almost did a u-turn but there was a cop at the bottom of the hill so we turned into a small park and saw a guard talking on a radio at the gate, not in his collection office. We both found this sort of strange since he didn't stop us or ask any questions. As we pulled back up the hill and into the parking area I noticed some guy talking to himself while he was staring at us so I told Pat to pull ahead and away from this weirdo. On the other side of the park we both got out of the vehicle and could hear squawking on a police radio. Pat and I had just pulled into an under cover police operation! Within a few minutes 5 other under cover police vehicles came squealing into the lot. One guy jumped out quickly and said "Sorry man, I had no idea where he was going!" They all talked amongst each other for a while as Pat and I super tuned into what they were saying. When I first said to Pat that we were in the middle of a police operation he said they were trapping people at doing U-turns.
This was the excitement of our afternoon and we felt like we were breaking the law and just about to get caught, luckily we are so old that these little things get us all excited instead of doing the real thing. We rove on up the beach loving the visual pleasures that this state has to offer. Pat and I say that you have to see California in order to understand why people would pay so much to live here. The property values along the water are still outrageous even with the housing market in a slump. After scoping out a few $45 a night campgrounds, I suggested that we go to Ojai for the night. This is a small artist town which is just 20 miles off the 101. The further we drove, the more we liked the road, covered in deep green foliage and very mountainous. Have you ever seen the "Happy California Cow" commercial? I think this is where those cows live. It got dark really early today so we pulled off of the road just before 6pm. We were both under the covers and sleeping before 7pm and I had no arguments about that. I again woke up around 3am but this time we were parked in a remote pull off over looking a huge lake. I stared at the sky for long enough that Pat came out the door looking for me. The stars seemed so close that I could touch them and the moon was just under full, leaving the ripples on the lake far below us glowing in the moon light. I guess this 3am nature call was much better than the one in L.A. Friday November 6th I woke this morning with a memory that ran through my head about more storage space in the bus. As soon as Pat and the dog got up I made them move over and BAMM, right there under the back bench seat, storage. This made life so much better for all of us. I had room to store tons more stuff and we could actually see the carpet in the back. I think Pat and I were just so excited to get into the bus that we forgot all of the instructions.
This is our third day in the bus and I am finally getting used to the little idiosyncrasies of the old girl. One thing I am having trouble with is the head room. Not that it is short, it's my own head, I keep knocking it into everything. Of course it is just a huge joke for Pat when I hit the same spots every time. He won't open the roof for me so I'm going to have to learn to do that one myself. He says there's no need since I never hit the roof, I hit the sides or a shelf or things that have never been hit by a head in the history of this vehicle I'm sure. We are starting to have fun now with all of the grumpiness behind us and both of us enjoying the novelty of the trip. We spent our morning walking around the quaint town of Ojai or should I say I did. Pat spent the morning in a coffee house, updating his blog. Luca and I walked the streets and window shopped for hours followed up by picking up some groceries. We have opted to shop day by day since we wont be using the fridge in here. We don't want to use the propane to cool it and campgrounds are not an option very often so we have used that spot for storage instead.
The people on the one lane hilly roads seem to all be in a hurry and instead of a friendly wave, we are getting the finger. What's wrong with these people? Don't they see our friendly ,peace loving flower stuck to our dash board? This makes for some great entertainment when they pass us and we just wave and blow the horn like we are oblivious to what they are gesturing to us. After we left Ojai we started on the road to Lompoc, an awesome beach spot that has tons of surfers, kite boarders and wind surfers. The wind was kicking here and was cold but we spent a couple hours on the beach hunkered down to watch the action. I can't even imagine how cold it would be in the water but I guess wetsuits really keep them insolated. I love the beach and the sound of the waves hitting the shoreline. This is in an area which on both ends of the shoreline we can see mountains wrapping around the water. There is a marine layer that covers the tip of the mountains like blankets, keeping it warm.
Pat and I didn't want to leave the sounds and the sights of this little campground plus the fact that we could hook up to electricity and take showers was one of our deciding factors. We opted to camp here tonight and update the blog so I don't get real far behind. When I was going to bed I racked my brain on the shelf above for the third time today and Pat got a great laugh out of me. I think I could get used to this size place but don't tell Pat, he would trade down in a minute. This little bus puts us almost in a different culture or a different mindset as to what the purpose of life is. It just took a few days to get here, no hurries and no worries, just take life one day at a time and live it from sun up till sundown. Friday November 13th It's late Friday afternoon and we are sitting in a hotel room located in the semi-industrial part of Monterey California. We have chosen this part of Monterey simply because of the price of our room. We found it on Hotwire for $57 which is actually cheaper than a campground in this area.
Pat and I are usually advocates of sleeping in our own bed, but since that isn't an option and the temperatures have been dropping down into the low 40's at night, paying for a shower, electric, cable, internet and heat seems like a bargain at only $57 bucks. After we've been on the road for for the past 9 days without having the convenience of our solar panels, our inverter and the accessibility to power on demand, I haven't had the chance to write anything on my blog at all. Pat seems like he is taking every chance he can to stop in a coffee house, a sandwich shop or anywhere that might get a signal along the way on our route up HWY 1.
I am pretty much just fine with this glitch in modern our lack of modern amenities, but it is difficult to keep everything up to date on our site. Pat did the smart thing, taking notes everyday about what we did and where we went, eloquently writing his thoughts in his leather bound notebook so his memories would be clear when he put them in his blog. He would read to me from this notebook before we went to bed at night, holding his flash light to see what he had written throughout the day. I found this so romantic because although most of you who read these blogs have never heard Pat's voice, it is very deep and commanding, with a soothing tone that makes me feel very comforted. When he reads his thoughts to me, I get so caught up in his descriptions of our adventures, letting me revisit the places we've been through his eyes and making them twice as nice as just seeing them through my own. Our first 9 days of this adventure have been filled with tons of laughter, very few arguments and plenty of bumps on my head and knees from not watching what I'm doing in the small VW Van. I am really surprised how well we are getting along in such a small space, and I think it must be a testament to our compatibility.
Either it's that or we just plain enjoy the closeness!? How in the world can that be possible? I thought 200 square feet was small, but this is different, we are on vacation from our normal, day to day adventure. Not only that, but this California coastline is one of the most untouched areas that we have seen on our trip of North America. It is hard to imagine that California, the third largest economy in the world could be this remote. It's also hard to believe that people will donate property to the state in such monumental proportions. The Hearst Castle is one example. Giving the Castle and 125,000 acres of prime ocean front property to the state would be something I could not fathom doing no matter how wealthy I am.
I guess they can always go and visit the castle, hopefully they get a family rate on the entrance fee. I think what made the visit to the castle such a great experience was the guide and the movie that told us about the life of the Hearst family. Without the background of the personalities involved in a world of self made wealth, it wouldn't have been as interesting. It would still be an astonishing work of architecture, but the added information really made the difference in how I felt when I left. It was sort of like we knew just enough about William Hearst that it made me glad that he had oodles of money. Further up the coast was another family that donated an area called the Waterfall House which was to become a museum for Native American Artifacts. Helen Brown had made the stipulation that her property be named after her good friend and someone she very much admired, Julia Pfeiffer, now known as the Julia Pfeiffer State Park. She also said that if her home had not been turned into a museum within 5 years, that her home should be torn down and the property never to be built on again. The government just couldn't get it together and the house was torn down, leaving nothing left but the remains of a previously groomed garden overlooking the ocean and one of the only fresh water, waterfalls to drop into the ocean known to man. Such generosity here in California! Who would have thunk it. I can't imagine living in the area that is called Big Sur, with the inflated fuel prices of $3.79- $4.79 per gallon for regular unleaded and all the groceries at least twice as expensive as the lower part of the state. It would be hard to survive as a regular Joe around here that's for sure.
So here we are at the end of our northward push, getting ready to turn back toward San Diego after our trip to the world renowned Monterey Aquarium. We will turn around our little home on wheels, that we have become very accustomed to, and see what we can find to get ourselves into on the way back south down the 101. Although, what Pat has grown to call Mellow Yellow, did have a bit of a set back in Cambria, I have nothing but good things to say about this adventure and the frame of mind that it has put us both in. I can only call it "freedom" for lack of any other word that comes to mind. We can stop anywhere, have dinner, sleep, walk the dog, what ever we want and no one even notices the fact that we are living in this small cabin on wheels. Wednesday November 18th We're back to our mansion that I have learned to value and appreciate over the past 2 weeks. The trip in the bus was a good time, but it was very hard to not have the comforts of home that I'm so used to. It would be perfect if we used the bus just to drive from destination to destination and slept in a hotel, but that's not in our budget. On the other hand, it still wouldn't be perfect because I like my own bed and my worn out sheets and the smell of my husband on our pillows. The way we travel, it allows us to see most everything and also come home to our own house.
This felt like a real vacation and you know how vacations are great but sometimes you feel like you have to come home and relax, that's how it felt. Not to mention the fact that the last few days have been nothing but uncomfortable for me. I have always been highly allergic to Poison Ivy, Oak, Sumac and biting flies. So I try my hardest to avoid all of those things. I guess we weren't careful enough because I am now covered with Poison Oak. From head to toe at this point, there is a rash of itchy bumps on me that is taking everything in my being not to just rip the skin open from itching it. Before we went to the Monterey Aquarium, we stopped at the local museum to see what we could learn about the area. That is when I first noticed the itching and burning on my ear. I though it had to be a reaction to the hotel soap that I used this morning so naturally, I scratched the itch and the more I scratched, the hotter it got. At first Pat was poking fun and like a good parent would scold me whenever he caught me scratching it. Like an unruly child, I didn't listen and took every opportunity to dig at the inflamed side of my face. I ended up taking some Benedryl before we went into the Aquarium so it would stop itching and we could enjoy ourselves. The down sides to Benedryl are, if I don't take the maximum dose, it offers no relief and if I do take the maximum dose, I become so tired and sluggish I just want to sleep. Knowing this, I bought a 24oz can of Red Bull to go along with the Benedryl and I tried to make the best of our Aquarium experience.
We got some great pictures and I regretted paying the 30 bucks to enter since I just couldn't enjoy myself due to all the yawning and the severe urge to take a nap. When we left ,Pat asked me what was wrong and I just said that I was beginning to feel itchy all over and I need some more meds or I would itch my skin off. Pat drove us south towards our big mansion waiting in San Diego as I laid in the back floating in and out of consciousness. I could feel my face swelling and realized that I had this stuff in more spots than I thought. We stopped for the night which was one of the worst nights of sleeping that I have had to date. I tossed and turned all night and kept waking up with my head stuck to my pillow. It's hard to change the side that you sleep on over night and my usual side is spooning Pat. I tried to lay on my back, finally resorting to spooning Luca on the other side of me.
It had oozed so much over the night that it had a hard crusty encasement that cracked when I laid on it. The liquid had run down into my ear canal and that was hard and crusty at this point, making it feel like I was in a fish bowl. I got up and started the van to let it warm up a bit before we made our way to an emergency room. I have had poison ivy so bad before that I got it in my eyes, ears and throat and had to be hospitalized, so I didn't want to take that chance while we're on the road. That was 4 days ago, the ER trip got me some Prednisone and some Ambien and also kept me from going completely insane. Although my body is now covered with the stuff on my chest, my rump, my stomach and a few spots on my hands and legs, at least the swelling isn't as bad. Pat kept teasing me that I was going to have stretch marks on my ears because it was so full and tight that it stuck straight out like Dumbo. He is always their for me when I need moral support. I have spent the past three days in a sleepy haze, wishing that this stuff would just be done with. Thank goodness that Jeff let us borrow a bunch of movies he has, because that is what I've done for the past few days, not wanting to be seen in public like this. The only place that I went into was Wal-Mart and if any of you have seen the website people of walmart.com, I had no fears of being stared at in there. I woke this morning with a few more spots, and the current rash being much redder and hotter around my waist and chest. The rash on my face seems to be a bit better, but the glands under my ears are so swollen that I sort of look like Frankenstein with those two nubs sticking out of his neck. To top it all off, I have picked up on Pat's cold, leaving me coughing and blowing my already blistered nose. Oh, and one added bonus, I have gained 7 pounds over the past 3 weeks and one side effect of the steroids is an insatiable hunger and weight gain!! Yippee!! Isn't life grand! Here I sit in our humble abode, glad to be home and suffer through this time of blisters and itching. I told Pat as I was making dinner last night how glad I am to be back to our place, where ever it may roll. I will make the best of this opportunity to appreciate what great skin God has given me to live in. Wishing it was blister free, but glad it's only temporary.
I have a funny/gross story that I would like to share with you all that I forgot to mention last week. I will start by saying that like most of us, Pat has a few things that really bother him and I always laugh at or poke fun at because I think he has made them up. For instance, he says that sugar free food gives him a splitting head ache, although I feed it to him everyday and he never knows it. If I tell him that it is sugar free, he immediately gets a headache. Pat has eaten green apples since the day we met and always loved them, now he says that there is some new chemical in them because it makes his tongue break out with bumps on it. If I peel them and cut them up, he never says a thing. He says that certain things make him have a rash, but unless I say to him "I just served you so and so this morning and you never got affected by it." He will then tell me that he thought he felt something strange but didn't say anything. We have 3 nalgene bottles and filter our water through a Brita filter so we don't pollute the land fills with plastic water bottles. We have 2 clear bottles and one that is white. Pat insists that the white water bottle makes his mouth break out, so he will never drink out of it. Knowing this, I have turned that bottle into the dog water bottle. The only time I use it is to replenish dog water or take it on hikes for the dogs to drink out of it. Apparently Pat wasn't aware of my conversion to dog water only and since he wont touch the thing, I never thought to mention it. While we were in the VW Bus, I had filled Luca's water bowl and let him get his fill. He drank pretty much all of it, leaving behind a concoction of 2/3 slobber and 1/3 water in the bottom of the bowl. While Pat was driving he looked back and saw water in the dish and scolded me for leaving the bowl with liquid in it when this wasn't our vehicle to have it spill in. Since we were on the freeway and we weren't going to be stopping any time soon, I poured the warm, slobber water from the bowl into the white nalgene bottle, there, problem solved, no one drinks out of it anyway. The next morning when we woke up Pat looked at me and said, "What was in the white nalgene bottle?" I told him about me not wanting the water to spill and how I had converted the white bottle into a Dog Only water bottle. The look on his face told me that he had just about thrown up in his mouth. When I asked him why he would ask that question, he explained to me that he had woke up in the middle of the night really thirsty and the only bottle that had water in it was that one. He continued to tell me how he had downed almost all of it before he realized that it had a thickness to it and that his lips broke out in a rash immediately. I could not control the laughter which just made Pat want to throw up more. I explained that if he hadn't been so upset about the water in the bowl while moving that I would have never poured it into the white nalgene bottle in the first place. Every time I think about him drinking that stuff, it makes me gag because it was so gross. Just wanted to share another Stupid Moments with Pat and Cindy with you all and hope you can appreciate the humor of it. Thursday November 26th Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I woke this morning to the sound of my nubby fingers scratching my skin and took a few minutes to give thanks to all the things that are good and wonderful in my life. As a kid I was taught that Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful to those guys coming off the ships that wore funny hats and curling shoes.
As an adult I have a completely different perspective on this day of thanks. It is now a day to pay homage to the people in my life that have given me smiles, an ear to listen to my ramblings and a hug or a word of confidence when my life needs that the most. My life has become so filled with people that are giving, caring and concerned for my health and happiness that I feel like the most Thankful person I know. From state to state, through emails and phone calls, on Facebook and in person, I have been extremely blessed with the joys of family and friends, new and old, that fill my life every day. I can't even begin to convey the long list of people that have made a difference in my life and without them even knowing have given me some sort of comfort or smile that will last me a life time. My family has taken on an entirely new role in this journey that Pat and I are on, always keeping us in mind and finding the most incredible places with us on our journey. Pat's family is contacting us with cards, phone calls and even a visit half way across the US to show us their support in this crazy endeavor that we have taken. I want to give a Thank You to all that we've met, stayed with, shared a seat at a dinner table or have become close friends through this electronic box that I find myself spending so much time with. Our life is a much better place with all of you in it and I wouldn't trade you all for anything. I don't know if any of you remember a few months back when Pat and I were trying to put together a new project for the both of us to sink our teeth into. We had both fallen in love with an area in Florida that we wanted to try our hand at as business owners.
This didn't mean that we weren't extremely disappointed, both of us saying that if we are meant to make this move, it would happen in due time. Since then, March thru most of November have passed with this place never really too far from our minds. We still talked about the plans we had for the place and how we really would have liked it to work out with us, knowing that we could make a go of the place. Since this move was not an option we had to make a decision about our near future. Our minds were made up that we would be staying here in California for a few months and by the grace and thoughtfulness of Jeff and Lori, have some place to stay while we get a job and make some money to get us moving again.
When we were on our VW bus trip Pat looked at me and said "If only that thing would have worked out in Florida the way we wanted it to." To which I replied, "We both tried our best and our prayers were answered, just not the way that we had hoped, everything happens for a reason." The day before Pat left for Vegas, we got a phone call from the owners of the property that we have wanted to buy and they asked us if we were still interested in the deal since the current managing partners had some family issues and had to back out of their contract. With a few more phone calls, some maneuvering of our time line, Pat and I have come to an agreement with the current owners and plan to be in Florida by the middle of December in order to jump head first into a project that we have worked on in our heads over and over.
This isn't a beach resort since that really isn't our style. We will be in a laid back fishing village with early nights, relaxing days and no hurries. We leave California tomorrow morning to drive the 2400 miles across the bottom of the Untied States in order to start a new chapter in our lives, one that we have been dreaming about for many months. I hope that everyone continues to stay with us on this new adventure since I'm sure we should have many things to share with our readers and friends. Our lives are constantly being filled up with new adventures and old friends. I'm hoping that this new page of the Every Miles A Memory book will keep being a page turner. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope that everyone has a few minutes to think about all of the things in your life that bring you joy, happiness, and fill your heart with thoughts that make you the person you are. I know I am extremely thankful on this day and pretty much every day when I wake up, be it still scratching my poison oak or not. Need Unlimited photo storage- FREE Trial of Smugmug
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He
wanted to say thanks to us for scaring the heck out of the neighborhood
kids on Halloween. I sort of thought that we should be buying
since we had so much fun, but I'll never turn down a free meal,
especially one this good. Just as I was about to heat up our
leftovers on the following day, we all loaded up and headed to Solana
Beach to 
She
has two other dogs and a couple of cats to play with so she will be well
taken care of and probably won't want to leave their house when we come
back.
Lots of people carrying there belongings with them as they cruise the
beach, calling it their home. People of all ages are homeless in
this area, from teenagers to 80 year olds. None seem unhappy, as a
matter of fact they were all very chipper if not a little too happy.
Life is what you make of it I guess and these folks are doing what they
can to get by. 
The
tile work on the home was just spectacular, leaving the eyes wondering
how so many vibrant colors and patterns didn't leave the eyes feeling
weak. I can't believe the tile in still in such great shape on the
outside of the home. Ocean wind, salt and water can do a number on
all things it runs into.
After the other vehicles pulled into place we realized it was much
bigger than that. We then realized that the last few places that
we had stopped also had people watching with head sets on and talking to
no one. This thing had to be big.
This will work out fine since we are in a very populated area, unlike
Yellowstone where we shopped for 4-6 weeks at a time. Remember how
I said that when we were leaving L.A. that people were waving to us and
were so friendly? Well, that's because they don't have big hills
there and if they do, they have numerous lanes.
Pat was so excited to see everything the aquarium has to offer and I
could just barely get into it. I would leave him alone to take
photos and I would find a corner to lean against until he was finished.
All the while rubbing the spot on my ear that seemed to be getting
hotter and hotter.
I
got up when I turned over to spoon Pat and when I put my head down I
could feel something under my ear, it was big and lumpy and it crinkled
when it touched the sheets. I thought that I had put my head on a
crumpled piece of paper or something else until I realized that it was
my ear.
A
time to be grateful to the Native Americans that grew corn, sharing the
recipe with our forefathers so we too could enjoy some. Bright
fall colors and drawing turkeys from a copy of my hand helped ring in
the festivities of the event.
I
worked for months to try and get to an agreement with the current owners
and after many conversations and nightly prayers, our plans fell
through. Pat and I walked away from the situation knowing that we
had given the project 100% of our energy and if it didn't work, it
wasn't meant to be..jpg)
Pat
was going to come back from his Vegas trip with the intentions of
getting some employment somewhere in the area. Neither of us
really want to work for someone else again, so you could say that our
spirit just really wasn't into finding something temporary to fill our
wallet up again..JPG)
This
is a place we've thought about since the first time we stayed there 3
years ago and enjoyed the little town so much. We will be trying
our hand at being motel owners with a 5 room motel right on the Gulf of
Mexico with 4 RV slots right next to it. Pat is real excited about
the tiki bar that over looks the water and offers breath taking sunsets.